Former speaker is latest target of mailings sent to various Congress members in the lead-up to the midterm elections

California representative Nancy Pelosi’s office received “a suspicious letter” on Wednesday in what appears to be the latest incident of ill-intentioned mailings targeted at US Congress members before the midterm elections.

The offices of more than three dozen members of Congress across the political spectrum have received envelopes containing white powder in recent days. One lawmaker’s office said preliminary tests indicated the powder was not hazardous.

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© Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

A court sentenced an unemployed man to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property for attempting, on orders from Russian intelligence services, to plant an improvised explosive device under a railway track.

New Mexico lawsuit claims ‘in exchange for furthering Epstein’s criminal project, his associates received generous salaries’

The attorney general of New Mexico on Wednesday filed a civil lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime attorney, Darren Indyke, and Epstein’s longtime accountant, Richard Kahn, accusing them of having “facilitated and concealed” Epstein’s crimes, and is seeking to stop them from being paid by Epstein’s estate while the litigation plays out.

The lawsuit, filed in the US district court for the district of New Mexico, names Kahn and Indyke as defendants both in their individual capacity, and in their capacity as co-executors of Epstein’s estate. The complaint also names Epstein’s estate, and the 1953 Trust, which holds the estate’s assets.

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© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

© Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

Jaden J Read was arrested after federal authorities say he posted threats online before president’s Wichita rally

A 24-year-old Kansas man has been arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot Donald Trump.

Authorities arrested Jaden J Read, of Clearwater, Kansas, last Saturday after he allegedly posted threats to kill the US president at his rally in the Wichita area on Monday, according to the justice department.

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© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

Alyssa Wilson, 17, was driving to a party at city zoo when prosecutors say Willie Herndon fired a gun at her car

A Texas husband and wife are facing criminal charges following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old girl who was driving to a Halloween celebration at the St Louis zoo when gunfire struck her vehicle on a Missouri highway.

St Louis county prosecutor Melissa Price Smith announced on Monday that Willie Herndon, 43, has been charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with the death of Alyssa Wilson. His wife, 45-year-old Taiya Herndon, is also facing a charge of hindering prosecution.

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© Photograph: Courtesy Robert Hickman

© Photograph: Courtesy Robert Hickman

© Photograph: Courtesy Robert Hickman

Prosecutors are initiating an Interpol search for developers suspected of running a construction fraud scheme in Ivano-Frankivsk that left 256 victims and caused losses of more than UAH 235 million.

Amanda Smith answered the door one afternoon in April and came face to face with the local Sheriff’s department in upstate Pennsylvania. The officers said they had a warrant for her arrest for a crime she had allegedly committed more than a thousand miles away in Arkansas.

“I was completely confused,” Smith recalled. For one, she had never been to Arkansas. Second, the warrant was for computer fraud. By her own admission, Smith was not a very tech savvy person.

She had a feeling she was being set up. After discussing with the officers the practicalities of what was about to happen — she was allowed to get her contact lenses — they took her away in handcuffs to the local jail where she spent three nights.

The reason for Smith’s arrest, she learned later, was that a scammer had tricked someone on Facebook Marketplace into sending $1,000 to a CashApp account in her name that the scammer controlled. The scammer created the account using her Social Security number and date of birth. Smith said she has never used CashApp.

What developed over the next few days, and has now stretched across six months, is a Kafkaesque situation in which Smith, in her telling, is being asked to prove her innocence in an ongoing criminal case, while CashApp refuses to provide her any information about the account because she couldn’t prove that she was the owner.

Philip Sullivan, who sought to rebuild his life after gambling addiction, convicted of stealing from real-estate employer

A Florida man who stole more than $1m from his employer to bankroll a gambling problem – before becoming the director of his state’s gambling addiction helpline in trying to make amends – was recently sentenced to nearly a decade in prison.

Bay county, Florida, authorities charged Philip Sullivan in March 2024 with stealing $1.4m from the Panama City Beach real-estate company for which he was the chief financial officer, Royal American, as local news outlets WMBB and WJHG had previously reported.

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© Photograph: @AddictedRecovery via YouTube

© Photograph: @AddictedRecovery via YouTube

© Photograph: @AddictedRecovery via YouTube